


worth every mile

by fuyuki_peridot



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Outer Space, Sweet, i love space and i love xiuchen, just softness, not necessarily space, setting does depend on space though, soft, this work focuses more on xiuchen themselves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 03:04:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13285614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuyuki_peridot/pseuds/fuyuki_peridot
Summary: Space travel is difficult, but for him, it's worth every single mile.





	worth every mile

**Author's Note:**

> xiuchen in space. need i say more?
> 
> information on the background / setting if you're confused is at the end! enjoy!

" _That_ ," Jongdae says, in an almost offended way, "is _not_ a tree."

Minseok gives him a questioning glance as they stop in front of the thing. "What do you mean?" he asks, in his adorably perfect English. "Is this not what a tree looks like?" He gestures to the... not-tree.

"Not on Earth, no." He's still stunned by the fact that this thing in front of him could possibly be a tree. He approaches it. "On Earth, trees have brown trunks and branches covered in green leaves of varying shape. According to species, of course," he explains proudly.

"Well, on _my_ planet, trees have white trunks in order to better regulate heat, and have apparently shockingly neon purple leaves in order to repel potential predators. At least, this-" he says something that's not quite English- "does. They thrive in hot places like this. Happy, nerd?"

"Say that again," Jongdae almost _giggles_.

"Say what?"

"The, you know. Species name. It sounds funny."

Minseok rolls his eyes at him, and then gives him a teasing grin. Casually, he leans on the white and surprisingly normal-feeling trunk. "Only 'cause you can't say it yourself. Wish you were a space linguistics expert after all, don't you," he mocks.

Now it's Jongdae's turn to roll his eyes. "Listen, knowing one extrasolar language was enough to land me my job-"

"That doesn't pay you half as well as you wish it did?" Minseok finishes. He only laughs when Jongdae punches him in the shoulder, and doesn't retaliate. "I didn't fly _nine thousand astronomical units_ and put up with the _numerous_ and _unpleasant_ side effects of light-speed travel to be _bullied_ , Min," he whines. "That is _fourteen hours_ in a _cramped-ass_ rocket-"

"Well, maybe if you had a bit more brains in you, you could have landed yourself a higher-paying job, which, in turn, would have gotten you higher-quality-"

"Okay, okay, I get it, I'm too dumb for an exobiologist genius such as yourself," Jongdae shoots back, pretending to be hurt- but he can't keep the grin off his face. This is what he had traveled all those millions of miles for. Minseok's beautiful smile, and soft voice, and how easy everything is between them, and just Minseok in general. It's really worth every single mile.

"What are you smiling about," Minseok questions suspiciously. His pretty eyes are narrowed, but he grins all the same.

"I'm just thinking about how much I love you," Jongdae tells him matter-of-factly.

He notices that Minseok can't keep his own smile off his face for the rest of the way home either.

-

"Okay, maybe I do wish that I know your language now," he admits begrudgingly as they stand in museum that tells visitors of the planet's natural history. All he can see are pictures of odd plants and rock formations, and other wonders apparently unique to this particular planet. The captions- all in the planet's native language- are indecipherable to Jongdae. All he can do is guess at how these things formed, because Minseok is too busy reading and examining the images like the nerd he is to explain.

"Miiiinnnn," he whines, taking Minseok's hand.

"Mm," he replies, not taking his eyes off the caption.

"Explain."

"Explain what?"

"All of this," Jongdae gestures to the air. "Can't read, remember?"

"What? You can't?" Minseok gasps, grinning.

Jongdae rolls his eyes. "This museum date isn't going along as planned," he says, narrowing his eyes.

Minseok laughs. Quietly, because they're in a museum, and he's the most considerate and polite human to ever come to this lucky planet. (Is he even human? Sometimes Jongdae thinks he's too good to be human. Maybe he secretly _is_ an alien.)

"Okay, hold on babe."

Jongdae patiently waits as Minseok continues to read, heart fluttering pleasantly. He contents himself with touching the rock and plant samples as he squeezes Minseok's hand, urging him to hurry. A colorful, striped rock catches his attention and breaks his resolve immediately, though. "What does this say? Why are these rocks so weird, Min?"

"This planet's extreme wind eroded it away, revealing the layers you see," Minseok tells him, a soft smile on his face.

"Really?" Jongdae grins, unable to help himself because of Minseok's cuteness.

"Yes, really."

"That's too boring of an answer for a rock this cool," he teases, examining the striped rock. "Tell me the truth."

"Okay, fine, an _extremely cool_ person like me sculpted it and that's why it's so un-boring. Happy now?"

Jongdae laughs. Loudly, because he doesn't care that he's in a museum, because he's not beautiful and wonderful and perfect like Minseok is. "Yeah," he smiles. "Sure."

The rest of the museum date is like that, too. Jongdae asking about a certain stone, or perhaps about why a particular plant looks so sinister, and Minseok explaining to him in a soft tone, so in love with his cutely curious boyfriend. Holding hands the entire time. Minseok shushing him every so often as he laughs too loudly at something, anything that the other had said. And the longer they walk, the quieter both become, simply taking in the other's presence after being separated by millions and millions of miles.

"I'm glad that, even in the vastness of space, we were able to find each other," Jongdae whispers suddenly, kissing Minseok on the cheek.

"I'm glad that you traveled- what was it- nine thousand astronomical units for fourteen hours?- just to see me," he grins, letting go of Jongdae's hand in favor of cupping his face and kissing him softly.

"It's worth every single mile," he says, smiling into the kiss.

"You're such a cheesy nerd," Minseok laughs, pulling away. "We're in public," he then says in response to Jongdae's whine.

"But I've missed you so much, I need to cuddle you right now," he whines again.

Minseok gives him one last kiss on the nose. "Wait till we get home, okay, babe?"

"When will we get home?"

"Well, we're basically done with this exhibit, and then we can go straight home and order food, instead of going out to dinner, if you want."

"Yeah," Jongdae grins, excited and impatient to be alone with his Min. "Yeah, let's do that."

"Okay," Minseok smiles. His smile is so beautiful, and Jongdae tells him that. It makes his already lovely smile become radiant and it suddenly hits Jongdae that he's in love. That he's so lucky to be in love with this particular person, on this particular planet, in this particular moment in time. That he can even hold his hand, despite the distance between them.

"I love you," he smiles, burying his face in the crook of Minseok's neck. He feels Minseok's free hand in his hair, softly stroking his head. "I love you too, Dae."

**Author's Note:**

> okay so to clear things up on the background / setting for this story:
> 
> minseok is a human. he grew up on this planet, speaking their language as well as learning english, the "standard language for earth." the planet that he lives on is large and has extreme weather that results in the things that jongdae sees and finds so amusing. he and jongdae's homeplanets are very, very far apart (9 AUS - 1 AU is the distance from earth to the sun, 93mil or so miles!), so their relationship is a difficult, long-distance one. very long distance.
> 
> minseok is a biologist for other planets (an exoplanet biologist - an exobiologist!) and jongdae basically just helps with interplanetary exchanges. like an airport worker, i guess. naturally, he can speak more than one space language for this field, but   
> he does not, obviously, speak the language that minseok does. thankfully, minseok chose to study english as well!
> 
> i love space a lot so you can probably expect more space-related shorts set in this same universe. 
> 
> thanks for reading!! ♡


End file.
